Skills Without Borders
It is not hard to find stories about young people who are unfocused, or worse, focused on the wrong things. The lives of the four young Jamaicans featured here tell a different story. From late June through September, Javier Farquharson, Janel Foster, Shamar Brown, and Chrision McPherson — four HEART/NSTA Trust trainees — are in Hebei, China, on a 90-day adventure of learning, exploration and growth.
Javier is there to work with industrial robots. Shamar and Chrision are studying hotel management in one of the fastest-growing hospitality markets on earth. And Janel is sharpening the nursing skills she has been building at the Southwest TVET Institute’s Black River Campus — the same small town Hurricane Melissa ravaged less than a year ago.
This is the mission of the HEART/NSTA Trust in action: to provide young Jamaicans with options. To show them there is more to life than “chopping” and “skating on the toll”.
The four trainees were selected for the 2026 GSA x POCY Group Scholarships Programme, a fully funded international skills training initiative delivered in partnership with the UNESCO Global Skills Academy and the China POCY Group. They had to earn their places: the programme drew candidates from across Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as Small Island Developing States, and these four came through that competitive field carrying Jamaica’s flag. They were nominated through the HEART/NSTA Trust and formally endorsed through the UNESCO UNEVOC Centre – Jamaica.
What the journey holds
Over 90 days of training delivered in English, the trainees combine hands-on technical instruction with Chinese language exposure, cultural immersion, field visits, and campus-based learning. The scholarship covers international airfare, tuition, accommodation, meals, insurance, and student support — so the only thing these four needed to bring is what got them selected in the first place: talent and readiness to work.
Behind every trainee, the HEART/NSTA Trust
No trainee makes a journey like this alone. The HEART/NSTA Trust walked every step of the pre-departure road with them — providing visa support, guiding student orientation, processing stipends, coordinating with host institutions in China, and notifying the Jamaican Embassy in Beijing so that support was in place from the moment they landed. That is the Trust’s role in every trainee’s story: to open the door, prepare the travellers, and stand behind them while they step through.
What they will bring homeWhen Javier returns, he brings robotics skills into a Jamaican manufacturing and logistics sector that is rapidly moving towards automation. When Janel returns, she brings international clinical exposure back to a health sector that needs every skilled hand — especially her local community of Black River. When Shamar and Chrision return, they bring global hospitality standards home to one of the industries that drives Jamaica’s economy.
Their journey supports the Trust’s mandate to expand access to quality skills training, strengthen international TVET partnerships, and expose Jamaican trainees to global standards — and it advances Jamaica’s larger ambition: young people prepared for emerging skills, international mobility, and global competitiveness.
Four young trainees left in June. What will return in September is something more — knowledge, exposure, and skills that will ripple outward through classrooms, workplaces, and communities across Jamaica.
The HEART/NSTA Trust congratulates Javier, Janel, Shamar, and Chrision — and looks forward to welcoming them home.
The trainees
• Javier Aaron Farquharson (Southwest TVET Institute) — Industrial Robotics
• Janel Ashley Foster (Southwest TVET Institute, Black River Campus) — Nursing
• Shamar Sherwayne Brown (HEART College of Hospitality Services) — Hotel Management
• Chrision McPherson (HEART College of Hospitality Services) — Hotel Management